Sunday, June 08, 2008

Andrew and I are pretty fond of bread. And of cheese. So cheesebread is the perfect marriage in our dairy-lovin' opinions.

Anyway, I came across this recipe at Epicurious and I'll tell you it lived up to every expectation I had. I did a couple things slightly different than what they called for and was highly satisfied with the results--a wonderfully chewy texture.

Epicurious called this "Georgian" cheese bread (not sure why as mozzarella cheese is hardly a Russian invention). I figured I should probably call it something else since this is slightly different from their recipe and "happy" pretty much sums up how I feel when I'm eating it.

Put the water, flour, salt, eggs and yeast in the bucket of your bread machine in that order then set the machine to the "dough" cycle and let it run.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees (yea you read that right, watch the eyebrows when you open the door).

Take the dough out and divide it into two equal sections. Press each section into a 7-inch circle on a greased cookie sheet. If the dough sticks to your hands run them under some water and your wet fingers will slip right off the dough.

Divide the grated cheese into two equal portions. Take each portion and squeeze the grated cheese into a ball--see picture to left. Set each ball of cheese on each circle of dough then gather the edges of each circle of dough up around the ball, making sure to seal the extra dough at the top.

The grated cheese ball is now encased in dough.

Press the ball dough cheese and dough flat with your hand--wetting your fingers as necessary to prevent them sticking to the dough. Press the ball down evenly so that the cheese gets mushed down in the center and you create a new circle of cheese-filled dough that's about 7 or 8 inches in diameter (you don't want to break it up so get it as flat as you can without tearing it up).

Once it's flattened, take a sharp knife and slash an "X" across the top of the dough so that the cheese gets exposed a big as you see in the picture on the right. Pop the breads into the oven to bake at 500 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Take them out of the oven and spray them with a bit of olive oil cooking spray then put them back in for another 3-5 minutes or until they're golden bubbly and nicely browned.

Cut the circles into wedges and enjoy--you're going to love them.

***

And here's something else that should make you happy--or at least make you chuckle:

Dear scribbit. OK I'm not trying to be picky either... Yes, mozzarella isn't Russian, but Georgia isn't Russia and never has been (it was part of the Soviet Union, of which Russia and Georgia were both republics).

Living in Ukraine, I can understand why Russia and Ukraine get mixed up (ethnically similar people and languages, Ukraine was part of the Russian empire and has only been it's own nation for 16 years). But Georgia is very different from Russia, linguistically, ethnically and food-wise. In fact, it's almost turkish or middle eastern in terms of the latter.

Sounds yummy - in my book, there is no such thing as too much cheese, bread, or garlic (and one could certainly incorporate the latter into this recipe!). I too was wondering about the "combine cheeses" - is there supposed to be another cheese with the mozzarella?

No, I'm afraid this wouldn't work in the bread machine for baking. First, you need the high temp to get the chewy texture (rather like a pizza crust), second you couldn't maintain the cheese layer in the middle, it would get mixed throughout. You really will need to set the machine to dough and go from there--but at least that's the biggest part of the work.

Ohhh you have set my mouth and mind to lusting for cheese bread now. I love to use my bread machine to make potato bread for the hubby (kiddies like it too). I am such a cheese luster, this sounds YUMMY!!! And thanks to the other posters for the tips and history lesson! I am always amazed at how little I know the more I learn!

Ack! Another bread machine recipe...alas I am without bread machine though I do have the Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook, does it do the same thing? Or does the bread machine also work some yeast-proofing magic?